The Olympia Safe Streets Campaign was formed in 1991, after a very successful national bicycling and walking conference in Olympia sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists, the Capital Bicycling Club, and the Bicycle Federation of Washington.

Olympia Safe Streets is a small organization, with a membership consisting exclusively of current and former members of city advisory committees and the City Council. We work on political and technical issues.

Our greatest achievement was voter approval in 2004 of the utility tax for Parks and Sidewalks. This increased funding for sidewalks in Olympia (pop. 45,000) from $175,000 per year to over $1 million per year, by adding 1% to natural gas, electricity, and telephone bills.

The importance of this has become very clear in recent years, and the City budget has been under pressure. While the entire bicycle facility budget was zeroed out, and the general fund contribution to sidewalk construction was zeroed out, the voter approved sidewalk funding is intact. Olympia is still spending $1 million per year on sidewalk construction from the voter-approved funds.

You can read about this effort in two case studies:Robert Wood Johnson / Active Living By Design: http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/events-resources/resources/tax-parks-and-sidewalksAnd also the APBP case study at:http://www.walkinginfo.org/library/details.cfm?id=3963

We have presented at several conferences on our achievements in Olympia, including the 2006 and 2008 national Pro Bike / Pro Walk conferences. Our presentations are available at: